Like never before, the American public faces a stark choice in the run-up to the 2020 elections that could not offer a more distinct antithesis in policy – one which would lead to two very different Americas. The first is based upon the historic Judeo-Christian values that have made our nation great; the second is a sharp repudiation of those values in favor of a secularistic society that is shockingly hostile to people of faith.

One watershed issue is the sanctity of human life, which was a core value among most Americans until the U.S. Supreme Court Roe vs.Wade decision in 1973, which overturned many restrictions on abortion. Roe vs. Wade, however, stipulated that states could determine the legality of abortions during the second and third trimesters. The Democrat platform sweeps away all restrictions, calling for abortion on demand until the moment of birth. The Republican Party supports the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection act, which protects the unborn against a host of barbaric acts, including dismemberment, experimentation upon unborn fetuses, and the sale of fetal body parts.

The Republican platform also supports the conscience rights of healthcare workers to participate in morally objectionable services like abortion, and for parents to “determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children.” In sharp contrast, the Democrats support the coercive Health and Human Services contraception mandate against Christian groups like Little Sisters of the Poor.

The foundation of American society – as with any civilization – is marriage and the family. The Republican Party understands this, and has enshrined in its platform the fact that “the cornerstone of the family is natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman.” The Democrats, on the other hand, have willfully turned their backs on the collective common sense of history, supporting the Supreme Court’s judicial activism that recognizes “LGBT people … have the right to marry the person they love.” They are seemingly oblivious to the devastating social consequences of intentionally depriving a child of a mother or a father.

Perhaps of greatest concern for Republicans and people of faith is the Democrat platform’s insistence that “LGBT rights trump religious freedom, and rejects the misuse of religion to discriminate.” While Republicans “strongly support the freedom of Americans to act in accordance with their religious beliefs,” the Democrats promise to “punish” faith-based organizations that oppose the new agenda. Continuing its obsession with non-traditional sexual behaviors, the Democrat platform promises to impose “federal non-discrimination protections for all LGBT Americans … on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

Accordingly, the Democrat Platform supported the Obama administration’s mandating of “transgender bathrooms and showers in public schools” in order to further “the continued development of sex discrimination law to cover LGBT people.” The Democratic obsession with those who comprise only a tiny segment of the population whose lifestyles are contrary to the vast majority of Americans is telling. There are doubtlessly many students – and their parents – who are appalled at the notion of their daughter having to undress next to a male who happens to “self-identify” as a female.

Standing firm in the face of this rebellion against normality is the Republican Platform, which opposes Obama’s transgender edict for being “at once illegal, dangerous, and ignores privacy issues … and imposes and social and cultural revolution upon the American people by wrongly redefining sex discrimination to include sexual orientation or other categories.”

Predictably, the Democrat platform is silent on the role of God in government. On the other hand, the Republican party unabashedly proclaims that “if God-given natural, inalienable rights come into conflict with government, court, or human-granted rights, God-given, natural, inalienable rights always prevail.”

With regard to the teaching of sex in schools, the Democrat platform focuses on promoting condom-based sex education, a view which assumes that minors will be sexually-active. The Republican platform, by contrast, supports “sexual risk avoidance education that sets abstinence until marriage as the responsible and respected standard of behavior,” a position that doubtlessly reflects the views of many parents.

The choice facing the American people could not be more clear. It is frankly difficult to imagine how a person of faith can support the Democrat platform, which on point after point goes out of its way to reject and mock traditional values. The day has passed when someone who claims to hold to conservative values can remain a Democratic because of some perceived economic benefit, or simply because “they have always been Democrats.” A new political paradigm looms which threatens to recast the United States into something unimaginable, a repressive and totalitarian society that turns its vicious powers against all those who oppose it.

IFI Worldview Conference

On Saturday, March 16, 2019, the Illinois Family Institute will be hosting our annual Worldview Conference. This coming year, we will focus on the “transgender” revolution. We already have commitments from Dr. Michelle Cretella, President of the American College of Pediatricians; Walt Heyer, former “transgender” and contributor to Public Discourse; Denise Schick, Founder and Director of Help 4 Families, and daughter of a man who “identified” as a woman; and Doug Wilson, who is a Senior Fellow of Theology at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, and pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho .